10 best movies about hacking (using the term loosely), part 1

So I’m sitting around on a Sunday night when all of the sudden AntiTrust comes on TV. Having not seen the movie for a while, I was pleasantly surprised by how relatively accurate their depiction of computer code was. And besides being disappointed in finding out that Skullbocks is, to this day, still not a real company, enjoyed watching Tim Robbins do his best Bill Gates impression.

So I got thinking about the best presentations of hacking and compiled this list:

In no real order, as my sort function appears to be broken (har har):

10) The Net

This movie makes the cut because it was the one that scared my mom from using the internet for at least three years. Sandra Bullock does a great job hiding a floppy disk with important information on it and making copies of said floppy disk, which apparently had some important data on it.

9) Swordfish

John Travolta calls them “crackers,” Halle Berry shows her boobs for a million dollars a piece, and Hugh Jackman “cracks a firewall” in under 60 seconds. I think my favorite part of this movie is the terrible interfaces they show; all on quad monitor systems, way ahead of it’s time.

8) WarGames

You saw this movie, you wanted to hack into your school’s database and change your grades. You all of the sudden are launching nuclear weapons. Well that sure escalated quickly!

7) Jurassic Park

“It’s a UNIX system, I know this!” and “Hold onto your butts” are arguably two of the best lines from any movie ever. The best part is that the GUI she utilizes in the scene below was at one time a real feature.

6) Johnny Mnemonic

So The Matrix probably won’t make this list, but I don’t think I could sleep at night if I didn’t include a Keanu Reeves movie on the list. Supposedly this is movie takes place in 2021, so we should see the technology in this film fairly soon.